Published: 6 August 2021
Last updated: 4 March 2024
Among Key West’s 24,000 or so residents are about a thousand Jews, about one-third of whom are Israeli expats
ON ANY GIVEN afternoon, hundreds of visitors patiently line up for selfies next to a brightly painted, 3.5-metre-high concrete buoy marking the southernmost point in the continental United States.
Just behind this landmark, a less obvious monument overlooks the Atlantic Ocean for a few days a year: a menorah erected during Chanukah by Chabad Jewish Centre of the Florida Keys & Key West. Billed as “the nation’s southernmost menorah,” the gimmick is just one way that Rabbi Yaakov Zucker attracts Jews among the 2.5 million tourists who flock to the Keys annually.
“For a while, there was also a ‘southernmost Christmas tree’ and then they stopped putting it there. But I’ve continued my menorah tradition. People like these things,” said Zucker, 49, who often cruises up and down Duval Street, the epicentre of Key West’s famous party strip, in a modified golf cart, chatting up Jews and trying to convince men to put on tefillin.
Key West is the southernmost among a string of islands off the southern coast of Florida (called the Keys) that are linked to Miami via a 200-km highway that crosses the water.
While the Covid pandemic devastated local tourism last year and large cruise ships have yet to return, Key West’s hotels are again packed with visitors. Most are Americans who arrive by car from the mainland, but the number of international visitors is growing.
FULL STORY The Jews of Key West: Making a home again in Margaritaville (JTA)
Photo: Sam Kaufman, vice mayor of the city of Key West, left, and Rabbi Yaakov Zucker stand in front of the Chabad Jewish Centre of the Florida Keys & Key West (Larry Luxner)
